Second attempt to launch Angara rocket may be made July 9 - daily

MOSCOW, July 05, /ITAR-TASS/. A second attempt to launch the Angara rocket from the northern Plesetsk space site may be made on Wednesday, July 9, the daily Kommersant said with reference to a source at the Russian Defence Ministry.

“On July 5 a government commission is to meet in session to make a decision whether the rocket is ready for launch,” the daily quotes the ministry’s official as saying. According to the source, there are no objective reasons to postpone further tests till a later date.

Kommersant’s sources in the space rocket industry share this view. After the rocket was removed from the launch pad and brought to the test and assembly hangar specialists briefly identified the glitch. The source said the launch had to be cancelled due to a faulty valve of the liquid oxygen tank. The valve’s malfunctioning was a result of sloppy assembly.

Specialists will be able to eliminate the problem on site, without transporting the rocket to the manufacturer - the Khrunichev space research and industrial centre. Otherwise, says Kommersant, the launch would have to be put off for much longer, up to several months.

The first test launch of the light class rocket Angara-1.2PP was originally expected to take place on June 27. The automatic control system stopped the countdown. The launch attempt was delayed for one day only to be cancelled again.

The designer of the first stage engine RD-191 blamed the failure on a fall in the pressure of the oxidizer tank.

There were no plans for putting payloads in space. Under the test’s program the inseparable payload dummy and the second stage were to reach the designated site at the Kura proving ground in the Kamchatka peninsula 5,700 kilometres away from the launch site.